On Christmas Eve we showed up to my Grandpa's Norwegian Christmas party, awkwardly the same time as the guy playing Santa (You know us, we cannot be on time to a family function). We started walking up the driveway, had some small talk with Sandy Claus (he knew Brad's family! What a small world), and went inside to the party... We were visiting, and seeing how cute all the little kids look in their Norwegian costumes... When suddenly, Santa breaks through the front door! The littles went from being so happy, to being completely traumatized. I stood there in the mix of it all, laughing to myself.

Oh, the joy of the holidays.

I love that my Grandparents have carried down the Norwegian traditions. We have a big dinner every Christmas Eve, and all 38 of us crowd around a giant table to sing christmas carols, eat mutton, korve, surcal, and my most favorite... Rice pudding!

Poppy Per throws a shaved almond into the big bowl of rice pudding, mixes it up, and whoever finds it in their bowl, wins the giant chocolate santa!

Of course, he passes out mini chocolate Santa's to everyone else, so they don't feel bad.

My cute little niece Nina won the chocolate Santa this year, and boy was she excited.

My Mom hosts a 'Remember When' party the week before Christmas. We eat a yummy meal and exchange gifts! After that, we crack open the 'Remember When' box. Through out the year we write down funny memories, and put them in the box. Then at our party we take turns reading all the memories and laugh our heads off! This year I surprised my family with a 'Remember When' video of our year. It was so fun to watch everyones faces light up while watching it, especially the little ones!
I think we watched it three times in a row.

Okay, okay, I am going to show and tell my Dad for a second here.
Every night around Christmas he hikes up the mountain above our neighborhood, to light a giant christmas star. He is up there in rain, mud, snow or shine... And (because of technical difficulties) has even hiked up multiple times in one night! Its been so cool to see the impact the star has had on everyone below, our neighbors now say "It's not Christmas without the Star!".

Last night Brad and I hiked up with him and it was such a blast. Slippin' and sliding the whole way up, approaching deer, and looking out over all the pretty lights in the valley... But I must say, my favorite part is getting to the top. Watching him flip on the switch on that giant star. You can feel the heat radiate off of the lightbulbs - It's so beautiful and bright. It makes my heart smile, and reminds me of the true meaning of Christmas.

My brother Trevor put together this video and
in a weird way, it kinda tugs at my heart strings.

Exactly one year ago I filmed my entire engagement without even realizing.

We had a day off work, so I decided I wanted to take Brad to the Great Salt Lake (one of my favorite places) to have a little photo date. We snapped some pictures, and later got invited on a sailboat ride from a stranger (Lance) and of course we said yes! We sailed out to the most beautiful December sunset... And me being me, I had my camera out filming the whole thing. I showed the lady on the boat how to use my camera, because I wanted to get a cute shot of Brad and I together. I was so confused when he wouldn't come sit by me - he started kneeling in the bottom of the boat. My stomach flipped upside down when he then said, "Haiz, I actually know Lance already.." I got this freaked out, vulnerable feeling and didn't quite know what to think! Similar to the feeling I had when I found out Santa wasn't real - it got really awkward. Then he opened up the side of my grandpas vintage camera (that we had used as a photo prop earlier) to reveal my ring tied to the gears with a cute little white bow. And what did I say?